This application claims the priority of German Patent Document 100 47 066.1, filed in Germany, Sep. 22, 2000, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
This invention relates to a camera that is built into a motor vehicle, in particular, a passenger car.
It is known that one can install a camera in a motor vehicle, for example, a single-seat race car, and that one can also use it to take pictures of an auto race after which these pictures are relayed to the public-at-large, for example, with the help of screens.
German Patent Document DE 83 24 913 U1 deals with the mounting of optical instruments, among other things, cameras in a motor vehicle. A fixed device is arranged in the passenger compartment of the motor vehicle to mount the particular camera.
The Italian company publication Pininfarina in Rossa, June 2000, shows a sports car that has, behind the seats of a passenger compartment, a rollover bar that emerges from a superstructure and that is placed at an interval in the lateral direction of the motor vehicle between which [rollover bars] extends a wing. A camera is integrated into that wing, and it is used to transmit traffic events behind the sports car to a screen in the passenger compartment; the idea is to eliminate the rearview mirror.
An object of the invention is to install a camera in a motor vehicle in such a way that, first of all, it will assume a functionally correct position for certain specific pictures and, besides, that it will, in a practical manner, be integrated into a superstructure of the motor vehicle.
This problem is solved according to the invention by a camera assembly for a motor vehicle passenger car, which camera is arranged on a vehicle superstructure via a retaining device, wherein the camera can be swung by a retaining device from a resting position (Rs) that is sunk into a wall of the superstructure into an extended operating position (Bs) and vice versa.
Important advantages to be achieved with the help of the invention reside in the following: The camera is integrated into the superstructure in a concealed manner when in a resting inoperative position and must be swung out of the resting position into the operating position only when there is an actual need. After use, it can in a simple manner again be moved into the sunk resting position, in which it is well secured against unauthorized access. In certain preferred embodiments the retention device cannot only be integrated into the wall of the superstructure without any problem, but it also serves as a carrier for the camera. In certain preferred embodiments the access of rotation and the activation device provide a simple and practical movement of the retaining device with the camera. Finally, in certain preferred embodiments the crank gear between the activation device and the rotation axle of the retention device can be well handled with a justifiable effort.